Page 25 - Muzaffargarh Gazzetteer

according to the Balochs, a mixed tribe of Jat origin belonging to the Satha-
Surma clan, later represented by the Surma of Layyah; Doda, their founder,
married a Baloch wife. This tribe owned Dera Ghazi Khan before the Baloch
invasion, and retained it, being assimilated by the Balochs. The Miranis of
Dera Ghazi Khan were Dodais; the Hots, on the contrary, were Balochs of
pure blood. The Hots, according to Baloch tradition, are one of the five main
branches into which the Balochs got originally divided, i.e. Rind, Lashari,
Hot, Korai and Jatoi, who took their names from the four sons and the
daughter of Mir Jalalan, the common ancestor. They could scarcely therefore
be a branch of the Dodai. The Governor of Multan seems to have assigned to
these two families the land along the Indus, including both banks from its
junction with the Chenab upwards. They first established themselves on the
right bank, but gradually threw out parties who took possession of the left
bank as well. Very little is known about these Hot chiefs. They ruled
continuously at Dera Ismail Khan from their first settlement till about 1770,
when the last of them, Nusrat Khan, was deposed by King Ahmad Shah and
taken as a prisoner to Kabul. In 1794, the government of the province was
transferred to Muhammad Khan Sadozai. At that point, the Hots disappear
from the history.

Parts of Layyah along the southern boundary of the old District Dera Ghazi
Khan appear to have been included in that section of the Indus valley which
had been assigned to the Miranis. They are said to have founded Kot Addu,
Kot Sultan, Layyah and Naushera. Beyond Naushera the country probably
at first belonged, by the terms of the original assignment, to the Hots. The
towns above mentioned are said to have been founded about 1550 by the
four sons of the Ghazi Khans. The eldest of these, Kamal Khan, the founder
of Layyah, is said to have held a sort of supremacy over his brothers. It
appears, however, that the Miranis never held Layyah as an independent
government. The Ghazi Khans held Layyah as part of the Ghazi territory,
much as the Hots of Dera held Darya Khan. It was under these
circumstances that the Jaskanis rose to power. Mir Chakar was a leading
man among the earliest of the Baloch settlers of Layyah. One of his
descendants, Daud Khan, established himself as a robber chief in the jungles
between Karor and Layyah, with headquarters at Wara Gish Kauri. He
collected a large number of followers, and at the head of 500 horses he defied
both the Miranis of Dera Ghazi Khan and the Hots of Dera, on whose borders
he was established. This was during the reign of Emperor Akbar, in the latter
half of the sixteenth century. Eventually, Akbar sent a force against him, and
he was killed and his band broken up. The tribe seems, however, to have
again gathered together, and in the beginning of the seventeenth century
Baloch Khan, their chief, received from the Emperor a grant of the land from
Mehmoodkot to Khola in Mianwali.
The Jaskanis do not appear, however, to have succeeded in getting
possession of the portion of the tract lying to the north of Darya Khan. This
was held by the Hots of Dera till the end of the eighteenth century. Probably,

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